Awami League General Secretary Syed Ahsrfaul Islam and BNP Secretary General MirzaFakhrul Islam Alamgir finally sat together last night in Banani against the backdrop of heightened political tension over the arrangements for the next general election.
The meeting was held at BNP lawmaker ABM Ashrafuddin Nizan’s Banani residence.
However, leaders from both the parties did not officially admit to holding such a meeting. Some sources close to Ashraf and Fakhrul told the Dhaka Tribune that the two leaders sat for about an hour.
The sources could not say anything in detail about the exact nature of the discussions that went between Ashraf and Fakhrul.
The Dhaka Tribune tried to reach three of them over phone but failed. However, Fakhrul late last night ruled out the news on his meeting with Ashraf. “It is baseless,” Fakhrul told waiting reporters outside Khaleda Zia’s Gulshan office.
However, a senior BNP leader confirmed to the Dhaka Tribune that a meeting between Ashraf and Fakhrul took place. But many senior leaders of BNP were in the dark about the meeting.
The two leaders also had a telephone conversation on Thursday night. A number of sources said during the telephone conversation Fakhrul wanted dialogue after cancellation of the announcement of polls schedule.
While Ashraf insisted on holding dialogue amid preparations for polls.
The sources said the last night’s Asharf-Fakhrul meeting was the culmination of Thursday’s telephone conversation.
Some sources specifically confirmed Ashraf-Fakhrul last night’s meeting at Nizan’s house but the Dhaka Tribune correspondent came to know from some other sources that the two leaders also met at a Gulshan residence of a high-profile official of Sheikh Hasina-led government.
Emerging from the meeting Fakhrul went straight to Khaleda’s Gulshan office . A little later he left the office and went somewhere else before he came back to Khaleda’s office again leading to a kind of confusion over the meeting venue and time.
Earlier, on Thursday night Ashraf phoned Fakhrul twice requesting him to hold a talk over the prevailing political crisis, said a BNP insider.
The BNP leader said during the conversation Ashraf asked Alamgir to fix an appointment with Khaleda Zia as an Awami League delegation would like to meet her to talk over the issue.
The senior leader said when Ashraf made the phone call to Fakhrul’s personal cell phone, Fakhrul was at the chairperson’s office. The first phone call came at 9.30 pm and Fakhrul talked to Ashraf in presence of Khaleda.
Ashraf told Fakhrul that they wanted dialogue simultaneously with the announcement of election schedule and also said announcement of election schedule would not hamper the dialogue process.
But Fakhrul said election commission should have to refrain from announcing the polls schedule to discuss the polls-time government and for this the government has to request the election commission. Otherwise BNP would not sit for any dialogue.
Then Ashraf requested Fakhrul to hold a dialogue at a neutral venue and Fakhrul agreed.
